When a user composes a message, such as an e-mail message, for example, on a wireless communication device, the user composes the body of the message and may attach one or more relevant attachment documents. The user then enters header information, which includes entering information into the subject field and adding one or more recipient e-mail addresses in one of the “TO”, “CC” or “BCC” address fields. In some wireless communication devices, these address fields are structured as free-form fields in which the user can enter any string of characters. The user then sends the message to the one or more recipients. Recipients will hereafter be referred to as contacts and recipient addresses will hereafter be referred to as contact addresses.
In certain message applications, the user may be prompted to enter an e-mail address by selecting the contact address from the device's local address book. If the desired contact address is not in the local address book, the user typically manually enters the contact address as a one-time entry. However, there is no provision for allowing the user to select a contact address that is not in the local address book, nor is there a way to check if a manually entered contact address is a valid address. For example, in some message applications, one may enter any string of characters as a contact address, such as the string “XXYYZZ”, and the message application will consider this to be an acceptable contact address. The message application can then provide a confirmation box asking the user to confirm that the message is to be sent, but these message applications do not provide a validity check to ensure that each contact address is correct.